Nutrition Focus: Q&A on Tying Up

Lorna Edgar – specialist equine nutritionist

Q&A on Tying-Up

Management, nutrition & hydration

It is never too early to think about tying-up, as we commonly call it, but also known as azoturia, ERS (Exertional Rhabdomyolysis) or the old-fashioned word of Monday Morning Disease! There are so many reasons why our polo ponies can tie-up, but it’s worth bearing in mind the possibility of it occurring when they’re starting off the season and coming back into work.

Personally, when horses are tying-up, I am keen to look at the bigger picture of management, nutrition, hydration etc to try and avoid any more incidences of the horse going through the painful experience again.

Here are some questions I have been asked over the last few months regarding tying-up:

Q: My horse will often tie-up when she first stick and balls and at first chukkas, what can I do to avoid this?

A: There are a few of things here we need to take into consideration: 1. Quite often mares can be more susceptible to tying up due to hormone imbalances, which is something you would need to discuss with your vet, especially if the episodes become frequent. 2. When she comes into work from her winter break you need to be mindful of the diet you are feeding her – ensure the diet is balanced and low starch. 3. Ensure you increase her feed as her work increases. If she comes in from the winter quite light and needs condition, don’t be tempted to feed lots of feed – you need to feed the right type of hard feed for her level of work alongside plenty of good quality forage. 4. As her work increases the weather will be warming up – keep a close eye on her drinking and introduce an electrolyte supplement. 5. As much as the weather becomes warm, it also fluctuates a lot in the spring – be mindful of keeping her warm when standing and waiting to work. 6. She could well be one of those excitable and anxious individuals – the right type of feed can help with this, again low starch, high fibre and sympathetic management! 7. Remember to make changes to the diet SLOWLY – not a couple of days, a couple of weeks, allowing her to adjust to nutritional changes in her diet gradually.

Q: What should I feed after a pony has tied up?

A: After the immediate tie-up I want to encourage drinking and electrolytes, and then offering forage and possibly a very sloppy beet pulp such as Fibre-Beet or Speedi-Beet, especially to administer electrolytes and encourage drinking.

Be guided by your vet, but if it is a high starch-based ration, remove all cubes, mix and oats and just feed a balancer to ensure key vitamins, minerals and quality protein to help support muscle integrity.

Once you have been given the OK to resume exercise, I would continue with just a balancer for as long as possible – keeping a close eye on forage intake and hydration (use buckets rather than automatic drinkers) and still incorporating electrolytes and a beet pulp.

You may then be concerned about the calorie intake, as the horse may be starting to drop a bit of condition, so we need to focus on oils and not cereals/starch. Either add an oil-based supplement to the diet, such as Outshine or EquiJewel, or alternatively begin to add a low starch

Photography courtesy of Lorna Edgar

cube or mix such as Baileys Ease & Excel or Saracen Re-Leve Mix. Avoiding starch-based diets for as long as possible is ideal, especially if the horse is susceptible to tying-up.

You may wish to consider supplements, but I would strongly advise going through the above steps first.

Q: Do electrolytes actually help?

A: YES, absolutely they do, an electrolyte imbalance can be a trigger to tying-up, so we need to be mindful of this, but at the same time hydration also needs to be monitored carefully. I hate to say it, but those horses that are muzzled are less likely to drink properly – it is no point giving electrolytes and not allowing free, easy access to water!

I recommend pre-loading with electrolytes prior to exercise to those horses that are susceptible to tying-up, an hour before working hard or playing, especially in the hot weather. A very interesting and recent study by A. P. Waller and M. I. Lindinger (2021) concluded, “Increasing the volume and ion content of electrolyte supplements provided 1 hour prior to the start of exercise results in increased exercise duration and sweating. When providing a stomach full (8 L) of electrolyte supplement, compared with water, there was a better maintenance of plasma volume and extracellular fluid volume during exercise. This should be of benefit to cardiovascular function in the face of increased and competing needs for blood flow (cardiac output) by contracting muscle and by the skin. Provision of electrolytes was also accompanied by increased sweat losses of sodium, potassium and chloride. Provision of electrolytes 1 hour before exercise provides a source of water and ions that go into muscles and other soft tissues, and this may improve cellular function and thermoregulation during exercise.”

Q: We had some ponies tie-up when their forage changed – would this be possible?

A: So sorry to hear this, it could happen, and unfortunately, I have known this to happen. As you have probably read in some of my previous articles, I am always encouraging a gradual introduction to forage or a gradual change in forage to allow the horse to adjust to the changes in their diet, whether it is hard feed or forage/grass.

I appreciate you are often dictated to by your supplier of forage and the consistency of forage can change from one delivery to the next, which leaves you in a difficult situation when trying to do the right thing by your horses.

Problems are more likely to occur when switching from a hay to a wet haylage, depending on the quality of the forage and the Water Soluble Carbohydrate content. Mixing the two for a few days would be the preferable scenario. If this is not possible,

Pre-load with electrolytes prior to playing

using a hay replacement chaff can help – Baileys Light Chaff, Mollichaff Senior, Dengie HiFi Light, for example. I would also encourage using a pre/probiotic supplement to assist with changes in the hind gut bacteria.

Should you find yourself in this situation I would suggest speaking to your nutritionist or a feed company for guidance.

Q: I have heard fibre can help – HOW??

A: Well, in basic terms, the horse is designed to eat and digest fibre, and very efficiently! Fibre should make up the majority of the diet. Feeding a low fibre, high concentrate (mix/cubes) diet can increase the amount of starch provided as cereals (oats/maize/ barley/wheat etc) tend to be higher in starch, increasing the risk of muscle-related problems occurring.

Fibre also acts as a reservoir in the hind gut, holding onto water to allow water and electrolytes to be drawn from the gut into the circulatory system. Without adequate amounts of fibre present we are reducing this reservoir effect with less water to be drawn on during exercise.

When concentrate feeds are formulated they are done so using the nutrient analysis of an average quality forage, hence why there are suggested feeding rates and when fed over or under the recommended amounts with restricted quantities of forage, the diet may become unbalanced.

So, in essence, feed plenty of forage/ fibre – it will help!!

Other nutrition-related causes of tying up are as follows: • An unbalanced diet • An electrolyte imbalance • Dehydration • Over feeding for work being done • Under feeding for work being done

Q: How can I feed my polo pony who is a Good-Doer and ties-up frequently?

Good question! I find that Good-Doers are often the ones that are likely to tie-up, not through a diet of excesses, but from a diet of deficiencies – vitamins, minerals, quality proteins and fibre. As the Good-Doer often has its forage intake restricted so it does not put on condition, and its hard feed restricted to minimal amounts, again to reduce the risk of putting on condition. All in all, not a great situation for the equine athlete! The best option is to feed a balancer, ensuring quality protein, vitamins and minerals are all being received without the calories, alongside hay – that may need to be soaked to reduce calories instead of restricting the overall daily amount.

Balancers you might like to consider include Baileys Performance Balancer, Dodson & Horrell Ultimate Balancer, TopSpec Comprehensive Balancer etc – all providing those essential nutrients without the calories!

I hope the above has given you some ‘food for thought’, if you have any questions please do email me, but most importantly, if you have horses that are tying-up do talk to your vet.

Q: Is it just too much starch and cereals that causes a horse to tie-up?

A: No, not at all! I am just focusing on nutrition-related causes of tying up. Contact Lorna Edgar of Baileys Horse Feeds on lorna@baileyshorsefeeds.co.uk